i Congress, | SENATE. j Document 

d Session. X \ No. 737. 



ETHNOGRAPHY AND COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE OF 
LATIN AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES IN 1906. 



Mr. Lodge presented the following 

STATEMENT BY MR. HORACE N. FISHER ON ETHNOGRAPHY AND 
COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE OF LATIN AMERICA AND THE WEST 
INDIES IN 1906. 



February 24, 1909. — Ordered to be printed with map. 



[Memorandum, February 15, 1909.1 



Ethnography and commercial importance of Latin America and the 

West Indies in 1906. 

I. ETHNOGRAPHICAL notes. 

The accompanying copy of an ethnographical chart of America, 
showing the proportion of the Caucasian race in each of the countries 
of America, was made ten years ago, but may be considered substan- 
tially correct as showing the present percentage of Caucasian, mixed, 
Indian, and negro races in America. 

In the marginal notes are given detailed statistics suggestive of the 
probable future of, inter alios, the several islands of the West Indies, 
from Avhich we may expect that Cuba and Porto Rico with, respect- 
ively, 65 and 57 per cent Caucasian, will ultimately be able to maintain 
responsible and prosperous self-government; while the other West 
India islands, with less than 5 per cent Caucasian, can hardly attain 
orderly government except as dependencies — "crown colonies. " 

It will be observed by the chart that the per cent of Caucasians is 
substantially the same in the North Temperate and the South Teni- 
perate zones— 85 to 90 per cent; that that percentage steadily dimin- 
ishes in approaching the Equator, whether from the ndrth or from the 
south, attaining the minimum, 10 per cent, in Ecuador, and not exceed- 
ing 25 per cent anywhere within the Tropics, except in Cuba and 
Porto Rico. 

It will also be noticed that the Indian and the mixed races are 
almost entirely within the Tropics, only 5i per cent being found in 
Temperate Zone countries; and that the negro is subtropical rather 
than equatorial in distribution in America. It will further be observed 
that in 1890 the foreign trade per inhabitant was over 50 per cent 
greater in the Temperate than in the Tropical regions of America, 
being, respectively, $30.25 and $19.60 per inhabitant. 



N f53 

2 ETHNOGRAPHY OF LATIN AMERICA AND WEST INDIES IN 1906. 

Another fact appears by the ethnographical chart, which warrants 
the assumption that the Indian race never was considerable in what is 
now the United States, namely, that eleventh-twelfths of the Indian 
races are now inhabitants of the Tropics, and that even a larger per- 
centage of the mixed races live within the Tropics. This fact seems 
to concur with the conclusion of those who have carefully studied the 
Indian question — that the number of Indians in the United States at 
present is probably quite as large as when the white man came to 
America. 

II. COMMERCIAL STATISTICS OF LATIN AMERICA AND THE W r EST INDIES. 

The second subject treated in this memorandum is the comparative 
commercial importance of Latin America and the West Indies on the 
one hand, and of all Asia and the East Indies on the other hand. This 
matter was treated in my memorandum of January 19, 1899, based 
upon the latest official statistics then available, namely, of 1890. In 
the two appended tables are given the area, population, and foreign 
trade of each of the countries of Latin America and the West Indies, 
and of all Asia and the East Indies for 1906, my authority being the 
Statesman's Year Book for 1908. Though the trade statistics are 
given in various currencies — often of silver, and sometimes of depreci- 
ated paper money — great care has been taken to reduce these trade 
reports to United States gold. I think that the amounts in United 
States gold are substantially correct, as given in these two tables. 

It may surprise those who have not critically examined this subject 
to see (1) that the foreign trade of North and South America is more 
than double that of all Asia; (2) that the West Indies is the commercial 
equivalent of all the East Indies; (3) that the commerce of the east coast 
of South America (Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay) exceeds that of 
British India and all other British possessions in Asia (4) and is 
greater than the entire commerce of the Far East (China, Japan, 
and Korea); (5) that the foreign trade of Latin America and the West 
Indies, in 1906, aggregated $1,963,050,741, and somewhat exceeded 
the aggregate trade, in 1906, of British India, Australia, and Canada 
($1,927,842,150); and (6) finally that Latin America and the West Indies 
have seven-eighths the population (continental) of the United States, 
and two and a half times its area. 

ISi quaeris mercatori.a, circumspice! In America we have an India 
and a Japan, a China and an East Indies, able and willing to take all 
our surplus manufactured and agricultural productions ! 

Horace N. Fisher. 

Brookline, Mass., February 15. 1909. 



"]- 35 m 



ETHNOGRAPHY OF LATIN AMERICA AND WEST INDIES IN 1906. 



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4 ETHNOGRAPHY OP LATIN AMERICA AND WEST INDIES IN 1906. 



Statistics of Asiatic countries for 1906. 
[Compiled from the Statesman's Year Book for 1908, by Horace N. Fisher.] 



Country- 



Russian Asia 

Turkish Asia 

British possessions in 
Asia: 

British India 

Ceylon 

Straits Settlements, 
Federated Malay 
States, J oho ret- ... 

Baluchistan, Nepal, 
Bhutan, Sikkim.. 

Bahrein Islands d ... 

Aden and Perim d ... 

Cyprus 

British Borneo 

Hongkong/ 



East Indies: 

Dutch East Indies 

French: French 
India, Indo-China 

Portuguese: Goa, Ti- 
mor, Macao's 

German: Kian- 
chau; 

American: Philip- 
pines 



Total East Indies . 
Far East; 

China 

Japan 

Korea 



Far East and East Indies. 

Siam 

Persia 

Oman 

Afghanistan 



All Asia and East 
Indies 



Area, square miles. 



6, 207, 662 
693, 610 



6,901,272 



1,766,642 
25, 332 



39,953 

205,473 

275 

9,080 

3, 584 

76, 106 

405 



2,126,850 




1,127,521 



4,277,170 
161,198 
71, 000 



4,509,368 



212, 200 

628, 000 

82, 000 

250, 000 



5, 636, 889 



1, 172, 200 



.15,837,211 



Population, 1906. 



21,796,300 
17, 683, 500 



39, 479, 800 



8,410,770 
olOO, 000, 000 



294,361,056 
3, 578, 333 



1,488,710 

5, 993, 565 
70, tiOO 
41, 722 
237, 022 
685,000 
410, 638 



-306, 866, 046 



Exports and imports 
reduced to United 
States gold. 



$168, 410, 770 



801,074,539 
76,211,247 



c 69, 286, 573 

15,180,696 

e 15, 772, 745 

c29,391,050 

4,831,563 

11,910,716 

(S) 



-1, 026, 659, 129 



36, 000, 000 

21,518,000 

895, 789 

33,000 

7, 635, 426 



66,082,215 



433, 553, 030 
50, 590, 244 
10, 000, 000 



-494,143,274 



6, 686, 846 

9, 500, 000 

800, 000 

4, 500, 000 



.560,225,489 



21, 486, 846 



.928,058,181 



211,153,919 
91, 347, 410 
i2, 054, 521 

(*) 
59, 046, 660 



364, 202, 510 



517,381,456 

451,783,152 

19, 212, 890 



98S,377,498 



59, 794, 905 
56,633,870 
3, 396, 861 
10, 704, 666 



.1,352,580,008 



130,530,302 



.2,690,385,161 



hab- 
itant. 



3.14 



2.73 
21.30 



2.53 
20.38 



5.86 
4.19 



7.73 



1.19 

8.93 
1.92 



5.94 
4.25 



a Estimated. 

b Straits Settlements (Singapore and Penang) are ports of deposit and distribution for transit trade, 
aggregating in 1906 $304,175,896; for which reason are not counted in this table. Federated Malay 
States, with a trade of their own, are counted. 

c Federated Malay States. 

d Bahrein Islands in the Persian Gulf and Aden are practically ports of entry for the hinterland of 
Arabia; their trade, $45,163,795, is mainly transit. 

e Mainly transit trade with the Arabian hinterland, but not credited to Turkey in Asia. 

/ Hongkong, a free port of deposit and distribution for transit trade to and from China, had in 1906 
a trade of $1S2,141,907, or 35 per cent of China's trade of $517,381,456, exports and imports. 

g Transit only — credited to China. 

ft Goa and Macao have only transit trade with India and China, respectively; in 1906, $22,242,734. 

i Timor. 

j'Kiau-chau has onlv transit trade with the adjacent Chinese province of Shantung; in 1906 
$24,409,904. 

ic Transit trade credited to China. 




i North TemperaicZo** NoMhTVofiicfllZene 

Bosto/t,relitf.l.l899- 
Senate Doc. No.7 37 ; 60th Cong., 2d Sess 



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